Release of ‘Mohalla Assi’ halted by Delhi court

The Delhi court on Tuesday prima facie found that ‘Mohalla Assi’ is hurting religious sentiments of people and that it should not be released till the allegedly offending scenes and dialogues are removed, ordering the halt of the movie throughout the country.

Reportedly, the court has restrained the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and the movie’s director, producer from releasing the film on July 3 till further orders. The star cast of the film ‘Mohalla Assi’ include Sunny Deol, Ravi Kishan, and Sakshi Tanwar.

The trailer shows that the movie is based on the surroundings of the Assi Ghat in Varanasi on the banks of the river Ganga, the court said, “In the entire trailer clip, characters have been shown using very filthy language.”

“In one scene, a character dressed as lord Shiva is shown using filthy language. Use of such language by Lord Shiva makeover is really hurting. It may hurt religious sentiments of the people in case the movie is released and seen by public at large,” said the court halting the release.

“At this stage, a prima facie case is made out that until the religiously-hurting scenes and dialogues/words wherein the abusive and filthy language has been used, are removed, the movie should not be released,” Civil Judge Kishor Kumar said in his ruling passing an ex-parte ad-interim injunction order against the CBFC, producer, director of the film, and others saying they are “restrained from releasing the movie ‘Mohalla Assi’ all over India till further orders”.

Chandra Prakash Dwivedi’s directorial film ‘Mohalla Assi’ is a bollywood satire on the commercialisation of the pilgrimage city and fake gurus who lure the foreign tourists, and the film is loosely based on Dr. Kashinath Singh’s popular Hindi novel Kashi Ka Assi.